User interface for a portable electronic device
AssigneeCompanionLink Software, Inc.
InventorJohn Bruns
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and user interface for displaying and enabling access to data items stored on a handheld electronic device, the data items being organized in hierarchical menus associated with characteristics of the data items. A navigational feature is included which actuates direct display of a top-level menu from any of a plurality of user interface menus, without requiring navigation through any intermediate menu, even when commencing from multiple menu layers below the top-level menu.
Claims20
A method for displaying data items in a handheld electronic device, the data items being organized in hierarchical menus associated with characteristics of the data items, the method comprising:
- displaying one of a plurality of top-level menus, each top-level menu being configured to allow access to all of the data items;
- displaying a second-level menu in response to selection of a first characteristic from said one of the plurality of top-level menus, the second-level menu being configured to enable access only to the data items having the first characteristic;
- displaying a third-level menu in response to selection of a second characteristic from the second-level menu, the third-level menu being configured to enable access only to the data items having both the first and second characteristics;
- and
- switching directly from the third-level menu to one of the plurality of top-level menus.
A system for displaying data items in a handheld electronic device, the system comprising:
- a storage device configured to electronically store the data items;
- a user interface operatively coupled with the storage device and configured to enable a user to access the data items, the user interface including:
- a hierarchical menu system configured to display a plurality of menus showing characteristics of the data item, the plurality of menus including top-level menus and lower-level menus, where each top-level menu is configured so that all of the data items in the storage device are accessible from such top-level menu;
- a down actuator configured to cause a display of the handheld electronic device to switch from displaying a higher-level menu of the hierarchical menu system to a lower-level menu of the hierarchical menu system;
- an up actuator configured to cause the display to switch from displaying a lower-level menu of the hierarchical menu system to a higher-level menu of the hierarchical menu system;
- a top-level actuator configured to cause the display to switch directly from any of the plurality of menus to one of the top-level menus without going through an intermediate menu.
A user interface for accessing data items stored on a handheld electronic device, the data items having at least one associated characteristic and being accessible via a hierarchical menu structure having a plurality of menus, the user interface comprising:
- a down actuator configured to cause downward branching from a current menu to a relatively lower layer menu of the hierarchical menu structure, where as a result of the lower menu layer requiring a relatively larger number of associated characteristics than the current menu, fewer of the data items on the handheld electronic device are accessible from the relatively lower layer;
- an up actuator configured to cause reverse branching upward from a current menu to a relatively higher layer menu of the hierarchical menu structure, where as a result of the higher layer menu requiring a relatively smaller number of associated characteristics than the current menu, more of the data items on the handheld electronic device are accessible from the relatively higher layer;
- and
- a top-level actuator configured to produce display one of a plurality of top-level menus directly from any one of the plurality of menus in the hierarchical menu structure without navigation through any intermediate menu, wherein such top-level menu is configured so that all of the data items are accessible from the top-level menu.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.